Sydney Festival to tour regional Australia
In a coup for performance lovers around Australia, Sydney Festival, in partnership with Australian Theatre Live, are inviting regional and rural audiences to experience highlights from this year’s Sydney Festival program at the Sydney Festival Roadshow 2022.
The Sydney Festival Roadshow 2022 sees expertly filmed recordings of acclaimed productions from the recent Sydney Festival season screened in neighborhoods and townships across regional Australia.
Four outstanding shows from the January 2022 event, (stay), Erth’s Prehistoric Picnic, The Pulse and Italian Baroque with Circa, have been selected to share with the audiences throughout the country. Screenings will take place in over 30 venues Australia-wide, from Narrogin in WA’s wheatbelt to Muswell brook in the Upper Hunter Region of NSW, and all the way down to Colac Otway in southwestern Victoria. Further screenings in New Zealand are also planned, with dates and venues to be announced.
Recorded by Australian Theatre Live during the Festival in January 2022, these carefully crafted, high quality, multi-camera films will reproduce the theatre experience for viewers who might not usually get the chance to see such works.
The Hon Paul Fletcher MP, Federal Minister for the Arts:
A cornerstone of the Morrison Government’s approach to supporting the arts has been that they should be for everybody, wherever in Australia they happen to live. It’s hard to think of a better example than Sydney Festival Roadshow 2022, which is why I am so pleased we have been able to support the roadshow through our RISE program, which is also helping to contribute to stronger and more vibrant regional centres by directing over half of all funding to recipients from regional or remote parts of Australia.
Sydney Festival Director Olivia Ansell:
We are so pleased to expand the reach of this year’s festival, providing access to new audiences through Sydney Festival Roadshow 2022, The importance of art and culture in regional communities cannot be underestimated – to support connectedness, health and wellbeing, generating inspirational change and fostering new talent. So, for those who couldn’t join us in Sydney last January, we’re bringing the festival to you.
Grant Dodwell, Creative Director Australian Theatre Live, added:
Partnering with Sydney Festival has been a resounding success. ATLive is committed to creating better accessibility for world class performances such as those within this Roadshow, and we look forward to the future of our collaboration with Sydney Festival.
The four productions showcased in the tour capture the breadth and depth of Sydney Festival’s programming, from the likes of family-friendly dinosaur fun and multi-disciplinary Singaporean theatre to unbelievable acrobatics and circus magic.
Featuring renowned Singaporean sound ensemble, SA the Collective, (stay) blends dance, theatre, music, design, dialogue and film to tell a haunting story of loss and human connection. In Erth’s Prehistoric Picnic, viewers can rediscover the Sydney of over 65 million years ago with an immersive puppetry experience to delight families and big kids alike. The Pulse sends 22 bodies into the air and your heart into your mouth as performers from the world-renowned Australian physical theatre company, Gravity & Other Myths, tumble, flip and fly in a gravity-defying production. And music and acrobatics combine in a proud and passionate ride into Italy’s past in Italian Baroque with Circa, a collaboration from Brisbane’s Circa Contemporary Circus and The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra.
Mr Franklin:
The Hon Ben Franklin MLC, NSW Minister for the Arts: the roadshow will help regional audiences connect with a diverse range of performances. The Sydney Festival Roadshow 2022 is a celebration that will allow regional and rural audiences to experience the best works captured from this year’s event.
The NSW Government proudly supports the long-running festival which has launched countless careers, and I am so proud of these talented filmmakers who are able to recreate the live performance experience for viewers who might not otherwise have the opportunity to see such works.
Having (stay) shown as part of the Sydney Festival Roadshow affords the work a second life on the screen. It’s an incredible opportunity to bring the hard work and passion of our talented performers at Kurinji in Western Sydney to new audiences all over Australia, shared S. Shakthidharan, writer of (stay) and co-Director at Kurinji.
The Sydney Festival Roadshow 2022 kicks off on 20 May with screenings taking place in regional towns and suburbs across NSW, Victoria, Queensland and WA.
Sydney Festival and Australian Theatre Live are working with local councils to host the Sydney Festival Roadshow 2022 in theatres, cinemas and venues around Australia, with 10% of ticket sales donated to Local Health Services, including Help 4 Kids, Can Assist, Allawah Lodge Coolamon, Art Therapy at Oberon’s Art Council, Illawarra Women’s Health Service, Grafton Headspace and Colac Area Health Foundation.
The Sydney Festival Roadshow 2022 and Australian Theatre Live are recipients of the Federal government’s RISE Fund. Australian Theatre Live is committed to making theatre accessible to arts lovers regardless of location, income or ability.
About the films
Thwayya faces the loss of her family farm after five generations of tending the land. Violet’s ancestors were custodians of that land for over 75,000 years, but she left home long ago.
Meanwhile, Tsuet-Cheng is returning from Sydney to Singapore for “Tomb Sweeping Day”, a ritual in which families visit cemeteries to talk with their ancestors.
These three women don’t know each other – but when two skeletons are discovered in the dried-up creek bed of a remote Queensland farm, their fates become deeply intertwined.
A hauntingly beautiful blend of music, dance, film, design and dialogue, (stay) is built on the real-life experiences of the artists. From a densely packed Singapore housing block to the vast Tagalaka country of outback Australia, (stay) delicately unearths buried trauma and fragile connections that lie at the heart of contemporary life.
Part concert, part story, part ceremony, (stay) is an evocative new work created by Western Sydney company Kurinji, its co-founder/writer S. Shakthidharan (Counting and Cracking, Sydney Festival 2019) and renowned Singaporean musical ensemble, SA the Collective.
Erth’s Prehistoric Picnic
It’s been a while – over 65 million years, actually – since Sydney echoed to the calls and footsteps of dinosaurs. Now, thanks to Erth, Sydney’s world- famous dino-recreationists, it’s like they never left.
There’s nothing like a good bit of lawn for a dinosaur to stretch its legs and do all the things a dinosaur’s gotta do. Made to spark feelings of wonder, Erth’s Prehistoric Picnic sends the Royal Botanic Gardens back to the wilderness of a distant era. A delight for the whole family, all you have to do is practice your dino-voice and prepare to meet your favourite ancient creatures – including, for the first time, the newest members of Erth’s prehistoric menagerie, the towering, three-metre-tall Thunderbirds!
Italian Baroque with Circa
Florence, Naples, Venice and Rome. Four remarkable cities, each with its own proud people, distinctive histories and architecture, and famous cast of scheming Caesars and plotting princes. In its fourth collaboration with Brisbane’s Circa Contemporary Circus, The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra will take you on a rollicking ride through Italy’s multi-layered past, fuelled by the vivacious Brandenburg string orchestra performing a kaleidoscopic Paul Dyer pasticcio on period instruments.
The crumbling columns of the Roman Forum and Dante’s flourishing Florence will emerge in daring new choreography that weaves the music of Vivaldi, Corelli and Brescianello into a sensual, surprising, and passionate experience, a show that dances to its own unique tune.
The Pulse
The sheer scale of it will get you first. 22 bodies and 26 voices in a sweeping, pulsating ebb and flow of humanity. Then you’ll start to absorb the details – the expertly crafted passages of seemingly impossible levels of cooperation. The mountain of bodies crumbling into an ocean of voice in an epic yet intricate symphony of strength, sinew and haunting song. With your blood pumping and your heart in your mouth watch bodies soaring, diving, tumbling then finding centre, finding stillness, amidst chaos.
The world-renowned Australian physical theatre company Gravity & Other Myths, which brought the acclaimed Backbone to Sydney Festival in 2018, now unites with Sydney Philharmonia Choir for The Pulse. A moving choral score meets and enhances the beauty of the physical display, as this landmark work explores how we –as people, communities or clusters of particles – respond to the changes that are continually happening around us.
From the Helpmann Award-winning creative team of director Darcy Grant, lighting designer Geoff Cobham and composer Ekrem
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